COVID-19 Update 10 June 2021

COVID-19 Update 10 June 2021

No new cases in Salem since Tuesday, June 8! Let’s keep it that way!
NHDHHS did not update their Press Release again today, so a few numbers are missing.
NH’s active cases went up by 17, while Salem stayed at 1-4 active cases.
Only three communities with more than 4 active cases have a rate of cumulative cases per 100k Residents over the last 14 days: Rochester (118), Nashua (57) and Manchester (56). Counties range from 27.1 (Rockingham!) to 134.4 (Sullivan County).
Two communities now have a positivity rate of more than 10% and two more are over 5%, but under 10%. Only 1 county has a higher positivity rate than 5%.
There were TWELVE new hospitalizations reported today, including three people under aged 60. This makes NINTY-THREE new people who have been reported as new hospitalizations in the last 14 days. (+34%)
Governor Sununu is lifting the State of Emergency as of midnight on Friday.
My message today is longer than usual, talking about the Delta variant which recently wreaked havoc in India. 11 people in NH have been diagnosed with this variant.

SALEM:

Total: 2,964 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem today: 0 new cases
Salem still has less than 5 active cases!!!
1 out of every 10 Salem residents has been infected.
Salem’s new cases per 100K for 14 days: Rate not calculated. DHHS says “Rate Not Calculated: For towns with cumulative cases between 1-4 in the last 14 days, data limited to protect the privacy of individuals.”
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: Data suppressed. DHHS says, “Data Suppressed: This metric is not currently available at the town level.”

On Thursday, June 10, 2021, DHHS did not issue their press release, so some numbers are missing from this report.

• • • • • • TODAY’S SUMMARY • • • • • •

Salem has added 0 new cases since yesterday, leaving our total at 2,964 Salem residents who have had confirmed case of COVID-19.
Salem’s active cases remains at somewhere between 1 and 4 total cases since Wednesday, June 2. We are back to where we were from Sep 22 to September 30, before things skyrocketed.
Salem’s new cases per 100K residents is too low to report. DHHS says “Rate Not Calculated: For towns with cumulative cases between 1-4 in the last 14 days, data limited to protect the privacy of individuals.” It has been this low since Tuesday, June 1.
Salem’s positivity rate for PCR & antigen results in the past week is too low to report. DHHS says, “Data Suppressed: This metric is not currently available at the town level.” It has been this low since Tuesday, June 1. Salem’s positivity rate was up to 14.3% on Dec. 14.
There are 17 NH communities with a positivity rate of more than 0. (17 a week ago). There are 15 communities with a positivity rate higher than 2%. (13 a week ago). 4 communities have more than 5% (4 a week ago). 2 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (3 a week ago.)
Today the new cases “by math” (yesterday vs. today’s cumulative total of positive cases as reported by DHHS) was 44..NH reported 24 people have “recovered” since yesterday’s update. After allowing for those who lost their lives because of COVID-19, NH’s number of active cases went up by 17 since yesterday’s report to 345..That’s 57 fewer active cases than we had a week ago. NH has added 237 new cases in the past week.
NH has had 50.2 new cases per 100K residents in the past 14 days. One week ago, it was 434.4.
NH’s positivity rate for PCR & antigen results in the past week is 1.5%. One week ago, it was 5.0%.
DHHS is reporting a total of 1,531 people who have been hospitalized as of today because of COVID-19. This is anincrease of 12 people since yesterday’s update, and an increase of 47 since last week, and 93 more than two weeks ago. There were 3 hospitalizations reported from Rockingham County since yesterday; our county’s total hospitalization count is 338.
The number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 32 which is 2 more than yesterday and 1 less than we had one week ago. We were down to 21 on Wednesday, June 2, a 34% increase in 2 weeks.
1.38% of all cases were hospitalized as of April 28. That’s been creeping up, and is now at 1.55%.
The cumulative total of ICU admissions increased by 4 since yesterday; the total number of ICU admissions is 447. We have seen an increase of 11 ICU admissions in the past seven days.
Since yesterday’s report, 3 lives have been lost due to COVID-19, bringing the total t0 1,360 people who have died in NH due to COVID-19. We have lost 5 people in NH due to COVID-19 in the past week. There has been 1 life lost in Rockingham County, the first since Wednesday, May 26; the total number of people who have died from our county is 263..

• • • • • Communities • • • • • •

DHHS reports that the new cases reside in the following counties:
This info comes from the press report, which was not updated today.

There are no counties that are down to no active cases, although Coos County has just 9 active cases, and Belknap, Carroll and Cheshire counties are in their teens. Hillsborough has the most, at 91 (+5) active cases, with 33 (-3) in Nashua, 31 (+1) in Manchester, and 27 (-2) in the rest of the County. Strafford is next with 54 (+4). Rockingham County is third, with just 43 +1) active cases in our County.

There are 17 communities with 5 or more active cases, of which 6 communities have the number of active cases in double digits.

Two communities now have a positivity rate of more than 10% (Sunapee and Winchester. Barrington and Berlin are over 5%, but under 10%. Since yesterday, Coos County dropped below 5%, but Sullivan County jumped up to 5.2, to be the only county that has a higher positivity rate than 5%.

• • • • • • DIAGNOSTIC TESTS IN NH • • • • • •

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus Sunday’s total): 52
New positive cases per DHHS: Not reported today.
Total people who have tested positive: 99,040

• • • • • • ROCKINGHAM COUNTY (22.78% of NH’s population) • • • • • •

Total cases in Rockingham County: 24,300
New cases in Rockingham County: 3
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 1.1%

• • • • • • CHANGES BY AGES • • • • • •

? children under 18 are included in today’s new cases.
?% of new cases announced by DHHS today are kids under 18 years old.

(Totals showing changes since yesterday.)

0-9: 6% of Total cases: 5563 (+6); Hospitalizations: 10; Deaths: 0
10-19: 12% of Total cases: 12369 (+3); Hospitalizations: 11; Deaths: 0
20-29: 20% of Total cases: 19894 (+12); Hospitalizations: 32; Deaths: 1
30-39: 15% of Total cases: 14560 (+10); Hospitalizations: 66 (+1); Deaths: 7
40-49: 13% of Total cases: 13009 (+5); Hospitalizations: 112; Deaths: 12
50-59: 15% of Total cases: 15127 (+7); Hospitalizations: 212 (+2); Deaths: 34
60-69: 10% of Total cases: 9706 (+2); Hospitalizations: 363; Deaths: 137
70-79: 5% of Total cases: 4787 (+0); Hospitalizations: 381 (+4); Deaths: 325 (+1)
80+: 4% of Total cases: 3936 (-1); Hospitalizations: 344 (+5); Deaths: 844 (+2)
Unknown: 0% of Total cases: 89 (+0); Hospitalizations: 0; Deaths: 0

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 345
Active cases in Rockingham County: 43

• • • • • • RECOVERED • • • • • •

Recovered today: 24
Total recovered: 97,335
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 98.3%

• • • • • • HOSPITALIZATIONS IN NH • • • • • •

Currently hospitalized: 31
New people hospitalized from NH: 12
Total hospitalized patients: 1,551
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.55%
Total admitted to ICU: 447
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 3
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 338

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 3
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 3
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 1,360
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.37%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 1
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 263

These are not simply numbers. We must not forget that these are all someone’s husband or wife, mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter, friend or neighbor.

Hello, Salem!

A few days ago, I shared that NH DHHS decided to stop issuing updates on the weekend. I asked for your opinion: Should I stop the weekend updates or use that time to take a deeper look at where we are and where we have been. The few people who responded said to take a break. So, on Saturday I will take the first break since Christmas, and the second day off since I started these updates on April 4, 2020!

I have been looking forward to the day when we don’t feel these reports are necessary. I have been hoping that that would happen in July. The State seems to think this is just about done. They are no longer doing the weekend updates, and today the Governor said that he is lifting the State of Emergency effective Friday at Midnight. He is doing one more weekly press conference next week, then will do them “as needed.”

That’s good news! But not all of the news is good.

Yesterday I shared an article about the Delta variant of COVID that ravaged India and is now spreading in the U.S. Now known as the Delta variant, this highly contagious variant has been found in more than 6% of cases in the US, and accounts for 18% of all new cases in some parts of the country.

“The transmissibility is greater and the potential symptoms could be more severe.” (1) “The Delta variant is more contagious and may be associated with a higher risk of hospitalization than the original “wild type” COVID-19 strain.” ~ Dr. Fauci (2)

“The impact is being seen most in 12 to 20-year-olds.” (1, 2)

“Now the dominant strain in the U.K., the variant is responsible for an estimated 60% of new cases. It’s more prevalent than the Alpha strain (formerly B.1.1.7) which was first identified in the U.K.” First detected in October, the Delta variant has spread to at least 62 countries. (2)

Today, WMUR reported that 11 cases of the Delta COVID-19 variant have been found in New Hampshire. (1) And it’s starting to show up in our neighboring states. More than 150 cases of were identified between March 13 and May 23 in Massachusetts. As of early June, the variant accounted for about 7% of positive samples that have been sequenced in Massachusetts.

Maine has confirmed four cases. Vermont has had a single case of the Delta variant, which was identified around mid-May in an international traveler. Rhode Island has not yet recognized the Delta variant in their state. Connecticut did not respond to inquiries. (2)

Vaccines appear to hold up against the aggressive strain. (2) “These vaccines are still quite effective against even the variant strains, [although] they may be less effective in some cases.” (1) There are more studies that have been done recently that have suggested that neutralizing antibodies generated by two doses of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are still effective against Delta, although they provide less protection against this [variant of concern] than they do against alpha (B.1.1.7) and wild type virus. Three weeks after being given, just one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines provided only 33% efficacy against the Delta variant. (2)

The longer COVID-19 spreads, the more chances that the virus will mutate into new variants, and with more variants, the higher the risk of more variants of concern. (1)

Why worry about new variants? (3)

Variants of Concern have increased transmission
Variants of Concern have increased severity of disease based on hospitalization and case fatality rates
Variants of Concern have decreased susceptibility to therapeutic agents such as monoclonal antibodies
Variants of Concern could evade natural or vaccine-induced immunity

The Delta variant, and the risk of future variants, are all good reason to stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

Sources for today’s message:

(1) WMUR: 11 cases of Delta COVID-19 variant found in New Hampshire; health officials urge vaccinations

(2) NBC Boston: ‘Concerning’ Delta COVID Variant Has Been Spreading in Mass. Since April.

(3) State of Maine: Weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Summary for the State of Maine:”